Alison's Story

Susanna’s story shows how vital it is to have a strong support network – family and friends, but also local agencies that can be there for you through a difficult period in your life, especially when you’ve never been in this situation.

Before falling pregnant with twins, Susanna was working as a manager in a local store and had no real financial issues. But things went “terribly wrong” at the end of last year when she met someone during covid and had an unplanned pregnancy:

“He moved in during my last trimester, but things unravelled quickly. Having an extra person, more electric, more food, he wasn’t working, put me under a lot of stress… Then two days before having the twins, he got physical with me – that was the final straw.”

Fortunately, the hospital’s safeguarding team were on call, and she got a lot of support straightaway. The police arrested her partner, and ESDAS – a local domestic violence charity – got involved too.

After having the twins, now 9 months old, Susanna lived with her mum for a while because she couldn’t even afford to heat her own home. Citizens Advice helped her deal with some existing debts, accumulated while her partner was living with her, and referred her to the Foodbank:

“It was a very stressful time, but I felt very supported….I knew if I was struggling, then I could call my friends or my mum, talk to ESDAS, or I could ring Citizens Advice.”

She still remembers her first visit to the Foodbank:

“I was very anxious, almost ashamed that I’d got to this point in my life… but I soon realised after a couple of weeks that I was being silly, that no one was judging, that everyone was there to help.”

Susanna now goes to the Foodbank most weeks and then does a little shop at Asda to bulk out what she’s been given. As well as food, Penny and Alison have helped with her Universal Credit claim, applied for a crisis grant, offered energy top-ups and supplied clothes and baby equipment for her children, as well as lots of emotional support. Asked what has made the biggest difference, Susanna says:

“It’s everything. If I didn’t have the support from the Foodbank, I genuinely don’t know where I’d be. I’ve never been in this situation, so I was completely lost. They are the ones that have guided me to the right places. They’ve taken the stress and pressure off me, so I can focus on parenting my children. They’re helping me financially by letting me come to the Foodbank. It’s the whole package.”

Susanna and her family are in a much happier place now. She is currently on an extended career break, thanks to her employer, but would like to return to part-time work next year, because she wants to be a positive role model for her children. She would also like to do some volunteering with the Foodbank:

“Because of the help I’ve had, it makes me want to be part of it.”

We meet many remarkable people at the Foodbank, who have been through so much trauma in their lives and yet manage to pick themselves up. People like Rebecca whose passion is teaching young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools.

Work had always been her safe place, as she was living in an abusive relationship at home. However, her life was turned upside down after she was sexually assaulted at work.

Her self-esteem was already very low, because her partner continually put her down:

“It was horrendous, he took everything I’d spent years building up, financially and emotionally… he just bled me dry, living rent free in my house without paying any bills.”

Following the incident at work, she couldn’t cope anymore going from one place of abuse to another, without the support or understanding she needed from her manager. She ended up taking an overdose that nearly killed her.

It was the health treatment team who brought Rebecca along to the Foodbank, so traumatised that she couldn’t come on her own and wouldn’t look anyone in the eyes. Her now ex-partner had stolen thousands of pounds from her, and without her regular income from work, she needed food. What she got was so much more:

“[My son] needed some school trousers and Alison said she would sort it. I couldn’t understand that it was a Foodbank and they were helping me with school uniform. I didn’t know the scope of what the Foodbank did – more than food and more important than food.”

Little by little, and with Alison’s gentle persistence, Rebecca opened up and was offered help to apply for an emergency grant from the Surrey Crisis Scheme and deal with the debts left by her ex-partner:

“I’d never been in debt before, so I struggled with acknowledging that I had a problem… That wouldn’t have happened without Alison prompting me. She lets me do it at my pace, rather than telling me what to do.”

Alison also helped Rebecca to make one of the hardest decisions of her life, to permanently leave the job she loved: “I was scared of giving it up in case I didn’t get another one. But she helped me to realise that it was a toxic environment.”

Asked about the biggest difference made by the support from the Foodbank, she says:

“It made me accept help. It just made me not feel so scared, because I know there is somebody there who could help me. I don’t feel as alone.”

Like many of the people we work with, there is no fairy-tale ending to this story:

“Mentally, it’s still up and down, but I’m not on the floor and I’m not contemplating suicide. To me, that’s a positive.”

Talking about her hopes for the future, her wishes are very simple:

“I hope that I get better and to eventually be in a job that I like again and to be able to live and breathe, not just cling on to survive. I’m trying not to look backward.”

As a foodbank, we are seeing first-hand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on families in Surrey, many of whom cannot afford to pay their bills and eat properly, even before the next hike in the energy cap is announced in a few weeks.

So far in 2022, we have provided emergency food assistance to around 5,000 people – nearly double pre-covid levels. This is a compassionate response to an urgent need, helping to reduce the number of people going hungry. In the past three months 89% of our clients say they have regularly skipped meals.

However, we are very aware that foodbanks are a sticking plaster and not a long-term solution to poverty. That is why our new strategy is aimed at supporting people so they no longer need the foodbank.

We have a team of support workers who help clients address their underlying needs, such as by accessing debt advice or mental health services.

We recently set up the Epsom Pantry, a low-cost community shop where members can pay £5 a week for food and toiletries worth up to £30, offering a more dignified and sustainable alternative to using the foodbank.

We also work with councils, housing associations, and other local agencies to seek changes to policies and practices that keep or push people into poverty. For example, we are working with local schools to reduce the financial pressure on low-income families by minimising the cost of school uniform and offering targeted support for those students in receipt of free school meals.

Most of our clients do not earn enough to pay tax, so they will not benefit at all from promised tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit wealthy households.

Equally, though, many of our clients need more than handouts – vital as these are in the current climate. To escape poverty, our clients need a hand up – advice, support, skills, as well as policy changes to reduce the extra costs (as well as the stress and stigma) experienced by those on the lowest incomes. Only then can we hope to end the need for foodbanks.

With the cost-of-living crisis now at the centre of the political debate, we hope the next Prime Minister will do more to truly understand and grapple with the challenge of tackling the rising tide of poverty.

Tom Sefton
Poverty Lead

We held an information evening in March to which 170 turned up, many of whom wanted to host a Ukrainian family. Now there are around 90 Ukrainian families that we know about being hosted here.

We run a helpdesk twice a week at the Ukrainian hub in the Ashley Centre where hosts and their guests can come and ask for advice and support. There are always Ukrainian speakers available and someone from Citizens Advice joins us too. We help find schools for the children and jobs for the adults and we help them navigate the bureaucracy of Universal Credit, to register with doctors, dentists etc. We organise events to give opportunities for families to meet each other including music evenings, trips to the seaside, picnics etc.

We feel the most important thing is for everyone learn English so that the children can progress faster at school and the adults have more opportunities to find work. We organise many free English classes each week and this summer are holding a four week intensive English Language School at St John’s in Leatherhead (who have kindly given us use of their premises at no cost).

We have a lot of information on our website (www.epsomrefugeenetwork.org) for hosts and their guests which is regularly updated.

We received over 120 responses in total, all of whom were very positive about their experience of using the foodbank, especially the way they were treated by volunteers and staff. We also gathered lots of useful information about the reasons why people were visiting the foodbank, the support they were getting from other local agencies, and any additional support needs. This will help us in delivering our strategy to tackle the underlying drivers of poverty, as well as meeting their immediate needs for food and toiletries.

The number of people using our foodbank is 85% higher than before the pandemic. Most of our clients are severely food insecure, with 88% regularly skipping meals. As well as needing food, the majority of our clients are dealing with a multitude of other issues.
Clients would like more help with energy bills (45%), affordable activities for children (25%), debt issues (22%) and access to mental health services (18%)

The 5 most common reasons why people visit the foodbank are

1. Cost of Living
2. Poor Physical Health
3. Loss of Earnings
4. Inadequate Benefits
5. Mental Health Issues

Our survey reaffirmed that 10 years on, we are more needed than ever. We will keep doing all we can to help people not to need to use the foodbank because we see that when people are supported through projects like Epsom Pantry, the Poverty Truth Commission and the Support Work – change is possible.

Emergency food provision is not a long-term solution to poverty. Our mission is to see a community free from poverty, where everyone can afford life’s essentials. So, we have reviewed what we do and have created a new name as we create a new charitable trust. We are truly grateful for our heritage and support given to us as we started life under Generation Church as a community project.

We are still running Epsom & Ewell Foodbank and keeping the name as it’s known and highly regarded in our community. However, Foodbank is no longer a name that adequately describes all we do. Our activities have evolved beyond the provision of emergency food to include a number of projects all aimed at tackling poverty in our community.

We are keeping the foodbank term as that is key to what we are and do. We are also still an active part of the Trussell Trust. In this video, Jonathan Lees explains more….

Never did we ever remotely consider that 10 years down the line we would still be here. We are bigger than ever, offering more and more support to our community with the vision to create a poverty-free future for our community as we look towards one day being able to close the foodbank.

Looking back, we couldn’t have predicted what was going to happen with the rise in the cost of living plus many things leading up to it. Sadly, the impact of these things means that needs are rising and our work is more important than ever. We still have the mission to close the foodbank and end poverty in our community, but that is not going to happen this year. So, while we are still here, we will challenge what is happening and support local people to rebuild their lives and have hope for the future.

To recognise the impact of what we have done we are holding a fundraising event at Epsom racecourse in November. It is definitely not a celebration but a mark of appreciation of all that has happened, all we do and the invaluable support of so many people in or community who donate food, resources and funds. Especially our group of amazing volunteers who are our lifeline and keep it all going.

We are holding a Gala Fundraising Dinner to acknowledge that we are still here, a decade on, still serving those in our communities who need emergency food support and more.

Get your tickets here before they sell out!